God’s upside-down value system

A book offered lists of character traits and abilities. Readers are told to circle at least ten that are true for themselves, then go through those ten with considerable thought. Since great strengths can be sources for great temptation, how were these positive traits causing problems in their lives?
 

One of my ‘strengths’ is a creative imagination. While this can be used for good, it can also take me down garden paths that I should not visit. Another strength is determination, but that one easily turns to simply being stubborn. One would easily assume that being a Christian involves learning how to avoid the weaknesses and live by our strengths, but that is a human concept, not a biblical one.

When God gets hold of a life, He isn’t interested in our strengths because His people must learn to function in His strength. Consider Paul. He was first Saul, a strong Pharisee with much religious training and zeal. To him, Jesus was not the Messiah and Christians were in sharp denial of the God that he understood, so he persecuted them.

But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1–2)

On that trip to Damascus, Saul met the Lord Jesus Christ and was converted, reborn, redeemed, made a new man. His understanding of Jesus changed, as did his attitude toward His followers.

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. (Acts 9:22)

Paul also explained the change in his attitude about weaknesses and strength. He talked about a problem that he had, but didn’t name it. He wanted that problem to go away and said,

Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:8–10)

 These thoughts have me thinking about my weaknesses and the reality that I have two options. Unless God takes them away, they can be sources of temptation to sin in some way or another, or they can be reasons for choosing the power of Christ, of letting His strength be perfected in me, of even boasting about them.

Paul went from persecutor to prayer warrior, from darkness to light, from murderous to missions. Jesus does that to people. He takes the sin that seems to control us and washes it away, replacing it not with more power, but with Himself and His godliness.

That is not all. God also takes the strengths that we seem to rely on, and changes our attitudes toward those strengths, making us glory in our weaknesses. After listing all his “qualifications” for good, Paul said. . .

For we …worship the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also… circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord… (Philippians 3:3–8)

This morning I’m thinking about what it would be like to glory in my weaknesses. Yikes, this is not normal for me. I can easily glory in my strengths and discard those weak areas as if they were my worst enemies. Paul did the opposite. He tossed his strengths on the trash heap and boasted of His weaknesses.

I’ve been in this classroom before, which means I’ve still not learned this lesson. Even though I know that God’s thoughts are higher than mine, and that He wants this change in my values, this is still a huge challenge.

To Live is Christ — transformed values

In my younger days, success seemed an important word, but I could find only one verse in the entire Bible that used it. This verse is in a section where God is challenging Joshua as he begins the task of leadership after the death of Moses.

Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:7–9)

Verse eight ends with “success” but now I know that is not the best translation. North American ambition reads in a contemporary spin and equates success with becoming rich and famous. In Hebrew, this word is actually the same word used in verse seven, there translated as “prosper.” My Hebrew dictionary says that it can also mean “act wisely.”

This tells me that success in the mind of God is not about making money or climbing the corporate ladder or being listed in “Who’s Who.” It is about following God with all my heart.

These verses also tell me how to do it. They say that I need to be strong and courageous, having the gumption to do what God says in a world that says the opposite. I need to pay attention to the will of God as expressed in His Word, reading and thinking about it continually. For that, I must turn off the television and abandon part of my library.

Also, they say that I need to be fearless and not confounded by the threats and confusion of life. I need to remember that God is with me, no matter where I go or what I am doing. Because He is with me, I can depend on Him to make available whatever I need. This is success.

This word obviously means much more to me than my early ambitions defined it. To make this practical, success is not getting angry when someone pushes or tries to provoke me. It is having a humble heart, knowing that I am needy and not at all embarrassed by that. It is joy in my heart during sunny and stormy days. It is responding to others with grace. It is being like Christ when everyone else is mocking Him or me. It is caring about the eternal well-being of everyone, even the people I don’t like very much.

Success is growing to Christian maturity and accepting whatever means God chooses to produce that growth. It is contentment and also zeal. It is purity and integrity. It all this and more, but certainly not about winning popularity contests, or having a great wardrobe, or a fancy place to live, or making the dean’s list, or anything I once thought was important.

For me, the key for this transformation of values is smack in the middle of that passage from Joshua where it says to let the Word of God be continually on my mind. Reading and studying Scripture exposes and cleanses sin, but also changes the way I think — and this is success.